Virginia wins ‘A’ grade for financial literacy courses; high school teachers recognized

Live within your means. Contribute to your 401k immediately. Create an emergency savings fund, because there will be a rainy day.

Those are among the tips that high school students in Hampton Roads hear from financial literacy teachers.

Those tips appear to be paying off, at least on course exams that show high pass rates for students at several area schools, including in Newport News and Chesapeake.

Teachers and schools across the area recently received awards for their high student pass rates on the W!SE Financial Literacy Certification Test.

For about a decade, Virginia has required that all high school students take a financial literacy class. This year, the state was one of seven given the top “A” grade on a “report card” from the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College, in Burlington, Vermont, for requiring a personal finance course before graduation.

Tina Shorter, from Woodside High School in Newport News, was among those from the area receiving a Gold Star Teacher Award because at least 93% of her students passed the certification test.

Shorter said she’s glad that the financial literacy class is state mandated, adding that it can be life-changing.

“Everybody that’s in my generation or a little bit younger made so many mistakes,” Shorter tells her students, because they did not learn financial literacy while in school. This class is about trying to help students avoid some of those mistakes.

Many of the lessons are eye opening, Shorter said. “Some students don’t know how much groceries are.”

Shorter said the class covers various topics, including credit, money management, insurance and investments. Some of her students also are able to help their parents and families with personal finances after taking the class.

David Thaw, a teacher at Chesapeake’s Grassfield High School, said the class makes students more “financially savvy” as they leave high school.

“They’re prepared to live on a budget, to live within their means and hopefully to get off to a really good start in their financial journey,” he said.

Grassfield won the Platinum Star Award from W!se for achieving a 90% student pass rate in the certification course for the second consecutive year.

Thaw said that the class includes games that feature scenarios and simulations to help students understand some of the more complex subjects, such as the stock market.

Nour Habib, nour.habib@virginiamedia.com